What did Aliens/Avatar director James Cameron think of J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: The Force Awakens? While he won’t come right out and say it, it doesn’t sound like he liked the new Star Wars film very much. Watch a clip from a new interview with the Titanic/Terminator filmmaker trying artfully to dodge the question of whether he liked Disney’s new Star Wars film. Hit the jump to hear the James Cameron Force Awakens comments.

Critical James Cameron Force Awakens Comments

And for those of you who don’t want to watch the video, here is what he says:

Well… George Lucas is a friend of mine and George and I had a good conversation about it. I don’t want to say too much about the film as I have a lot of respect for J.J. Abrams. I want to see where they’re taking it next, see what they’re doing with it. But I gotta say I think that George’s six films, had more innovative visual imagination. And this film was more of a retrenchment to things you had seen before, and characters you had seen before. It took a few baby steps forward with new characters. But for me the jury is out, I want to see where they go with it.

As you can see, it seems like Cameron shares some of the same feelings that his good friend George Lucas has about the film, that Force Awakens was more of a rehash with very little “innovative visual imagination.” Of course, Cameron is very good at avoiding saying so saying outright, but I think we all can read between the lines. When George Lucas has been asked about The Force Awakens, his answers have ranged from “I think the fans are going to love it, it’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for” to “They wanted to do a retro movie, I don’t like that.” Of course he would also follow up with comments explaining that Disney and JJ Abrams weren’t interested in having him involved.

They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway, but if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that any more, and all I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.’

And of course, many fans have pointed out that Star Wars: The Force Awakens rehashes a lot of A New Hope, and director J.J. Abrams has even admitted that this was purposeful. One thing you can’t criticize Cameron for is not trying to innovate and present visually different sci-fi. His record-breaking box office film Avatar was criticized by many for staying to close to some of the “hero’s journey” story elements that have been seen in other films like Dances With Wolves or Pocahontas. But the visual effects, character and production design are heralded as some of the best of the last decade.

It should be mentioned that Cameron came out in support of Terminator Genisys, a reboot/sequel that was critically panned for being a messy and unneeded rehash. That said, I personally liked the film, especially how it employed time travel to revisit and change moments from the previous films.